The movie is absolutely brilliant.
I am bummed out i didn’t work on it.

But apparently and not very surprisingly, it doesn’t
deserve a few introductory words from the administrators here??

r.

greg m.

Looking mighty sweet!! Great job Chris and gang!!

Jeff McAndrew

I really enjoyed this. Might be the single best looking movie with dragons as main chacters that I have ever seen. That dragon “Toothless” was it? It definitely reminded me of Stitch, both in design and personality traits. I’m really just thrilled to see a new project from Chris Sanders. I didn’t hate Bolt the way I thought I would, but I can’t help but wonder how it would be if Sanders was kept on the project.

I’m trying to think of how many movies I’ve seen with Dragons. There was Dragonheart, Quest for Camelot, Shrek films, Pete’s Dragon, Merlin, Sleeping Beauty, Harry Potter, Eragon, Dragon Wars, Eragon, Enchanted, Sword and the Stone and probabbly many more that I’m not thinking of.

Ah so this is Cris Sander’s new movie? No wonder I love the design of the dragon. The humans are hard to tell, because the lead boy looks like a young Linguine (from Ratatouille). Looks great though and the plot is totally worth seeing but the lead boys voice doesn’t sound like a boy, it sounds like man. That’s the downside so far…

Sara H.

Dragon designs look great, but the voice actor playing the kid is killing me!

Why didnt they just get a kid to do the voice instead of a uh.. 45 year old, cigarette-smoking muppet??

ask

Toothless certainly does look like it’s Chris’s design, so thank god for that! The humans might be good or bad.

Not your typical voice for a hero… maybe a bit annoying at times… but I did enjoy his sarcasm. I really wish they’d reveal who the voices are.

If this was traditionally animated (and toned down on the celebrity voices), I’d actually be really stoked for this.

Jorge Garrido

I’m excited by the fact that one of my favourite young actors, Jay Baruchel, is in it, but is also doing a voice. He’s not using his regular speaking voice.

rextherunt

I know nobody much like writers here but, auteurs and animators aside, these characters existed long before the director got his hands on them and the children’s books they come from are really pretty good.

Scott

Thank goodness Dean DuBlois is writing and directing this. His work on Lilo and Stitch was AMAZING.

Fred Cline

It looks good – especially the dragon. A unique, unexpected design for a dragon. Nice!

Giant monster dragon mouth thing at the end FTW – gonna be siiiiiiick in 3d. Looks like DW finally making something fun… even if the IRON GIANT sitting next to Hogarth bit and the Meg flying and freaking out on Pegasus in HERCULES are both shot for shot remade in this trailer…

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not feeling anything after watching this trailer.

With that said, I won’t pass further judgement until I see the film in theaters.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist

Jason

*shrug* Doesn’t look all that interesting to me. The dragon looks really strange. Does Sanders always draw his main animal characters with saucer-shaped heads? And the kid’s voice…gah. Well, it’s just a trailer.

Christina S.

Normally I don’t like Dreamworks movies (or at least their trailers – Kung-Fu Panda’s trailer was terrible!), but I’m pretty stoked about this one. Like most everybody, I’m pretty fond of the unique take on the dragon design, and the trailer made me giggle a few times. I might watch this one in theaters.

Though I gotta say… yeah. The protagonist’s voice. Kinda grating and sounds too old for the part.

Ethan

Wow, I can’t wait, I love the snappy animation and the cool character design, bring on the quirkiness !

@rodguen: I say this tongue-in-cheek, but it feels to me, all high-profile animation news journalist are afraid talking about Chris Sanders, considering how he “had to leave” his American Dog project. Explanations for his “leaving” were “business reasons” and he was also accused of being “too quirky” by Lasseter, then nobody wanted to talk about it. In interviews with Lasseter (about Bolt), he acted as if Chris never actually worked on the project. Something’s not right, I wish more people in the know would clarify what exactly happened.

If HTTYD makes more money than Bolt (and believe me it certainly will), Lasseter will look really bad for his “business decision” of playing it “safe” and destroying a director’s years of hard work and passion, So if anyone here have arguments to defend Lasseter, don’t hesitate and shut me up.

I can say this without being fired because I don’t work in hollywood :)

I don’t want to rush to conclusions yet. Confidently, I enjoyed the atmoshpere in the trailer, and the design of the dragon.

wgan

I’m not convinced by this trailer that it’s gonna be good, funny and solid, yet again, it’s just a trailer, but you can still find something to suggest that it’s gonna be mediocre just like most of the dw’s animations, the whole character design is just ok, the guy’s appearance is not intriguing at all, i’ve heard that nicolas marlet is among the designers, but the major character design is still somewhat disappointing, at least not that fresh. the first dragon encounter scene shown in the trailer is a bit awkward i have to say, there’s no single funny stunning moment, i was expecting more interactions between that guy and dragon but did get anything from that; back to the dragon design, quite a lot of people are intrigued by the ‘unique’ design, but haven’t you noticed that the design is quite close to some pokemon monster design, and yes, as mentioned above by someone, stitch, but that’s quite reasonable since that guy’s directing the film, but i did find anything quite as ‘unique’ as someone yelled, it’s cute though; one more thing i was expecting a speaking dragon, althrough it might fall to the dw’s speaking animal stereotype, but IMO it could have been much funnier than a pet like side kick character, anyway, let’s wait and see on the big screen, not having faith in this one though (but since dw’s last AvM’s quite horrible, this one’s got a much lower level to start with).

Great jokes are based on characters, and that requires the characters to have been correctly introduced, perfect pacing is important to make the joke funny, which both are impossible in a trailer. A trailer can only make a joke funny if it’s something simple like a fart joke, for example.

(yep, it doesn’t look like a dragon, it looks like a Chris Sanders dragon, I mean that in a good way)

It’s quite a shame that Chris Sander’s signature style doesn’t apply to the whole film like Lilo & Stitch. Maybe it’s the limitation of 3D that Sander-esque human characters would look absolutely ridiculous in 3D so they decided to play it safe. Still, I can’t help thinking if the film would look better in 2D given that the trailer gave the impression that it’s into generic 3D adventure territory… kinda like last year’s Dragon Hunters.

I also find Hiccup’s voice to be quite unbearable with all the hint of Stitch-like squeaks. But as long as the dragons don’t speak then I’d be fine with it.

I find it interesting that only the dragon has even the slightest hint of the Chris Sanders style, unlike Lilo and Stitch in which his style completely governed the character design.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought Hiccup’s voice seems REALLY off to me. If Hiccup is meant to be the underdog kid trying to prove himself, he certainly doesn’t sound like it.
When his voiceover started talking, I honestly initially thought it was Michael Palin putting on an accent.

Kris

I’m pleasantly surprised by how good this looks. Gotta love the Lilo and Stitch team. Maybe this can provide some real competition for Pixar.

What a horrible voice for the main character! He sounds so flat and old for his design.

wgan

Sylvain,

a trailer can certainly delivery several (one at least) best moment, but unfortunately, i didn’t get it from this trailer, this is actually a quite boring one, and it seems not to try to hind anything from the final, you can even tell what roughly the story’s gonna be. a good trailer should serve to sell the movie as best as it can, like planet 51 (e.g. the alien dog licking), or first teaser of the incredibles (the final movie is not on the same par of that one though); unfortunately, this trailer doesn’t grab me, it just simple didn’t work out for me

Rufus

I’m getting genuinely excited about this movie from this trailer. Good job!

chipper

Kid sound strange in the way that Chicken Little sounded weird to me. Dragon’s cute, though.

Sylvain

wgan, different jokes for different tastes I guess. I read the book, and it won’t be that kind of simple jokes (an alien dog, or a guy trying to put his belt, but he’s gotten too fat), so you might want to skip it. Your impression of the trailer is probably right, I don’t think you’ll like it.

The book transpires in the trailer, although they took a LOT of liberty with it, but the characters are spot on, Kamikazi will be awesome I think.

The voice of Hiccup is horrible!! I am so annoyed at how old it sounds and the voice is so bad to listen too. What the hell were they thinking? Jay Baruchel’s is 27 years old what the hell are they thinking. Everything else in the trailer looks great, but man that voice for that character as young as he looks is a really bad move. What a disappointment.

TheGunheart

Well, on the one hand, I know 9’s trailer gave away the whole film. On the other, I think Dreamworks is pretty good at not revealing everything in their trailers. I honestly though the robot probe was supposed to be the big showdown of Monsters Vs. Aliens, and obscures Susan’s role as the actual main character. And Kung Fu Panda may have given away the fact that Po fights Tai Lung, but that’s really all it gave away.

So something tells me we ain’t seen nothing yet. And what I have seen already has me impressed.

I saw a couple of sequences from the film before I saw the trailer, and I was blown away. Then I saw the trailer, and I wondered why the voice that fit so well in the film was annoying in the trailer, and why shots that looked great within their proper context looked contrived in the trailer, and why the trailer needed to give so much story away.

Then I said, ‘Oh, it’s a trailer, and trailers aren’t made by filmmakers or for filmmakers.” I’ve seen enough to feel confident that this is going to be a special film.

Sylvain

Hiccup is the narrator as an adult, telling a story that happened when he was a teenager. I’ll reserve my judgment about the voices for the real film with the real sound mix (trailer has a weird sound mix).

Jorge Garrido

I’m shocked at all the negative comments about the voice of the main character. Jay Baruchel may sound 27 but he’s sounded like that since he was 17 and he still plays 17 year olds. Actually, that’s not his real voice, he’s putting it on, but that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

He’s got a unique phrasing and tone. He doesn’t speak in the cliche rhythms of an animated movie main character.

Characters look awesome! I agree with changing his voice. Good job Chris and Dream Works. Looking forward to see this movie.

PEZ

Looks like the whole movie was designed and then Chris Sanders’ dragon design was slapped in the mix. I love Lilo and Stitch. I hope that Sanders came into the project in time to make this movie even Half as Good.

JM

Looks really good to me. Can’t wait.

Ultra

This is to Bill Stewart. Did you see the movie or are you just passing judgment based on the trailer?

I’ve actually seen the movie and was absolutely blown away. I know DW is the easy kid to pick on, but seriously, please wait until you see the movie before tossing out snarky remarks.

It’s good to see a movie like this coming out soon, especially after a year with Up, it’s nice to be reminded that animation can just be fun. Whilst I daresay the film will have some heart, I can see myself getting lost in it at the cinema, no thanks to the 3-D.

Ad

thats an evil looking dragon,looks more like a demon

Gobo

Until the dragon appeared, my first reaction was “Chris Sanders? Really?” But yeah, Toothless is 100% Sanders. Dunno if he focused on the dragon and Dean DeBlois did everything else, or what.

I was convinced the main character was going to be a goody-two-shoes, Disney-hero type of character, so I find him more likeable with the nerdy attitude. Although the underdog type of character is really overdone too, but he seems to have a nice personality anyway.

The dragon is great.The human designs are not so bad either, I like the guy with the moustache and the girl is somewhat peculiar. Hiccup does look a bit like Linguini.

That’s a nice surprise. This thing looks about a million times better than I expected. The STITCH-dragon is almost-creepy alien, and very appealing. The design looks as if it was a team design by Chris Sanders and Wayne Barlow.

Is that Norm MacDonald, sped up, as the narrator? It’s a perfect voice.

I love the look of this, but the trailer makes the plot look like a “Dragonheart” re-hash – which makes me think the movie may be completely predictable (boy be-friends dragon, learns dragons have been mis-understood, convinces a love interest that dragons are friendly, others find out and capture dragon, boy must save dragon using his own ingenuity and resources) If that’s the case, I’ll be groaning through the whole flick.

In any case this movie now gets added to the short list of Dreamworks flicks whose production design hasn’t made me want to wretch. Looks gorgeous and well animated.

Beatrice

To my mind, this trailer looks more like a computer game, than an animated feature film. I don’t really know why….

I’m with Jorge Garrido: the first thing I thought when I saw it was a trailer for another CG flick was great, another cliche flick with predictable celebrity voices and predictable character animation. The voice acting is a nice break from convention; it really sells the fact that the protagonist is a bit of a dweeb. And I’ve met several people with voices deeper than that who were around 17.

Eh, I don’t know. The dragon looks a LOT like Stitch. And the story just looks like another “Maybe -we’re- the bad guys” retread a la Avatar or Battle for Terra but with a dragon instead of an alien. There’s got to be more original stories out there.

Matthew

Tres Swygert,
Ya, its so annoying when Dreamworks makes movies that are “franchisey”. No other studio would EVER think of such a thing …

Oh wait, aren’t Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 in development … not to mention Ice Age 4? Maybe I heard wrong, maybe you’re right, those DWA hacks are the only ones who do franchises.

How many animated films as of late have featured a nerdy central protagonist who eschews traditional and/or customary behavior (in this case, “viking” conduct) in favor of mechanical ingenuity and inventor prowess (Bug’s Life, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, etc.)?

rextherunt

For them that missed it, as posted earlier, ‘How To…’ is based on a best selling series of UK kids books, so Sanders didn’t created the characters and Hollywood didn’t churn out the story, unless they’ve altered it a lot – in which case they did! Originally they were very Terry Pratchett in style.

Sylvain

It’s funny how things don’t change, after all these years, the people hating Dreamworks claim they force the poor artists to work only on sequels. None of them actually work there, they twist the truth, and they ignore contradicting facts. The famous “Big Lie” technique (if you repeat a lie often enough, the population will believe it without question). Seems to be working.

I need coffee…

Sylvain

John Powell’s doing the music… YES !!!

CartoonCrazy

THAT’S a step up from the teaser. I’ll probably be seeing this now.

Connie Pinko

Love the design of the dragon. The movie looks “meh,” however. I suppose I’ll wait and see.

That makes Robots, Igor A Bug’s Life, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and likely How to Train Your Dragon as “nerdy-inventor-protagonist-who-isn’t-appreciated-for-his-skills-at-first-but-eventually-is-called-upon-to-save-the-day-and-by-the-end-of-the-picture-is-rightfully-heralded-as-the-special-person-that-he-is” movies. Am I forgetting any others?

This is obviously a sub-genre of the much greater genre of computer animated films that include under-appreciated heroes that don’t necessarily have to be inventors. For example, virtually every other CG movie (Antz, Bee Movie, Happy Feet, Chicken Little, Kung Fu Panda, Astro Boy, Valiant, etc, etc.).

Kelly Tindall

Looking good so far. I’m thrilled that they’re using so many Scots as voice actors, and a Montreal boy plays the lead. Score one for the home team.

I had no idea that Sanders and DeBlois were working on this, though… Wasn’t CROOD AWAKENING or THE CROODS or somesuch supposed to be Sanders’ big coming-out party at Dreamworks?

Pedro Nakama

Hey Brewsters…
I’ve seen part of this film. It’s just like a Pixar film. You’ll see.

sean

kinda of a weak trailer in so far as trailers go.

the whole meeting of the minds scene reminds me too much of the iron giant.

the ‘jokes’ are pretty tired and formulaic. i wonder how much sanders and crew really hated exec notes coming back ‘suggesting’ these terrible attempts at humor.

good to hear baruchel do voice work but the hiccup design might have been better with some of baruchel’s look incorporated into it.

i don’t mean to be a sour puss but i’m still waiting for dreamworks to break their mold and make a different movie instead of taking other stories and cramming them into the same formula.

optimist

I’d be extra-careful in assuming that any ‘jokes’ are from some phantom “exec notes’ and are NOT the work of the writer-Dean DeBlois-and Chris Sanders, as well as the story crew.
Contrary to a tired old beaten-horse belief, there is no battery of ‘execs’ writing or even AFAIK suggesting lines for any of the films at Dreamworks. You’re still free to hate what you see, of course-just be mindful that it might actually be artists who did the work you judge so harshly…from a trailer.

On the other hand, it couldn’t possibly be that wrong assumptions about how the films are made color some of the the perceptions around here…could it?

I don’t see the bad gags anywhere. Most of the stuff seems funny. Thing is there are not even really a lot of gags there, but I take that as a good sign, we see parts of what seems to be funny conversations, which shows that the jokes will work in context and there are not lots of random gags as in other DWKs features. In fact both KFP and MVA had more silly jokes in their trailers. I thought both movies are among the best of DWKs, especially KFP. Now, How To Train Your Dragon is already looking well in the trailer so I’m hoping the whole movie to be great.

That trailer got my attention. Great story concept. Love the look of the dragon too.

James

The dragon and the tertiary characters are well done, imaginative caricatures that are a pleasure to look at.

The two main characters look watered down and boring, and the voice acting is entirely underwhelming – methinks there was some ‘design by committee’ going on here involving non-artists.

Ethan

Methinks the lawyers representing Chris Sanders should get involved here to counter the baseless disinformation.

DonB

Geez, Some of these people are too critical! The reason for a movie like this is to entertain us and make us feel good about things. The story seems interesting, the characters are unique and likeable. I cannot wait to will spend my hard earned money to see it, and I’m sure, enjoy it. Looks like fun!